Britten Sinfonia Academy Composer Hub

The Composer Hub aims to support talented young composers aged 11-18 from the East of England. We strive to develop their creative, technical and stylistic skills through a programme of tailored compositional briefs, mentoring from renowned professionals, rehearsals, recordings and public performance opportunities. Each year the Hub is led by a different professional composer, who mentors the students and attends two days of each of the orchestral projects.

The scheme launched in 2017 with four students who were mentored by composer Tom Coult. The current group is mentored by Edmund Finnis and they attend 2 days of each project, roughly 10 days in total across the year. We aim to fully integrate the composers with the main orchestra so they join us for the introduction weekend, take part in warm ups and group activities, sit in on rehearsals and rehearse some of their sketches with the group as their music progresses.

Each project has a compositional brief, which this year has included

– writing a string quartet for a masterclass with Sir James MacMillan

– writing a piece for chamber ensemble to be performed in either The Fitzwilliam Museum, the Museum of Zoology or the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology,

– writing a piece for the full orchestra to be performed and professionally recorded by a sound engineer.

– Willing to travel to courses across the east of England including Cambridge, Norwich, Saffron Walden and London

How to apply

To apply you must submit a completed online application form available here. You should also send us two contrasting examples of your work with accompanying programme notes. The deadline is 5pm on Wednesday 24 April 2019.

The programme costs £350 per year and full and partial bursaries are available.

Information for Applicants
After the deadline on Wednesday 24 April we will shortlist approximately eight applicants, who will then be invited to an interview in Cambridge. The interview will be conducted by a panel of three people – two professional composers (including your potential mentor for the year) and the Creative Learning Director of Britten Sinfonia. You will be asked to bring two examples of your work to discuss. The interview lasts approximately 20-25 minutes and gives us a chance to discuss your interests, experience and how you would benefit from the scheme.